NASA Finally Detects the Mysterious ‘Invisible Force’ That Has Been Eating Away Mars for Centuries
Mars' disappearing atmosphere has been an elusive mystery for a long time. For the first time, researchers have found real proof of a speculated theory that could be behind this disintegration, according to The Daily Galaxy. Findings regarding this speculated theory have been published in the journal Science Advances.
The phenomenon in question is atmospheric sputtering. For a long time, experts thought that the process was responsible for destroying the Red Planet's atmosphere and also caused it to lose water in the past. However, they had never observed it in real time. In the atmosphere sputtering, high-energy charged particles like heavy ions from the solar wind clash with the atmosphere, and push out atoms and molecules from it into space. This leaves the planet as a whole exposed to solar wind and solar storms, which eventually strip away its viability. Evidence of such a process has been deduced from Mars' isotope data in the past. Scientists from the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) have now seen it directly.
The team utilized three instruments for their exercise, according to NASA. These instruments were the Magnetometer, the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, and the Solar Wind Ion Analyzer. Scientists claim that it was essential for these instruments to be put in the right place at the right time, for apt observations. For years, the instrument gathered data across the planet's dayside and nightside at low altitudes.
The collected data was used by experts to create a map of argon particles in different regions of the planet's atmosphere with respect to solar winds. This map showcased that argon was present at higher altitudes, exactly in those locations where energetic particles from the solar wind clashed with the atmosphere. This means that the interaction splashed out argon (a neutral atom) into space. Researchers asserted this to be real-time atmospheric spluttering.
Experts further noted in the map that the rate of atmospheric sputtering was four times higher than what they previously assumed. This phenomenon also increased during solar storms, as per researchers. Shannon Curry, principal investigator of MAVEN at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, believes that the detection of atmospheric sputtering in Mars proves that the process was responsible for the atmospheric loss that happened in the planet's past when the sun's activity was much stronger.
Scientists believe that this atmospheric loss was the reason behind Mars losing all its water, stated Live Science. It is evident from Martian features like minerals, lake beds, and ancient river valleys that the planet once hosted water and possibly life. Researchers believe that the findings from the new study will help them in understanding how the atmosphere evolved on Mars and figuring out for how long the planet must have remained habitable.
The next step for the team is to create more models and isotopic data, to see billions of years into the planet's past. This will reveal to them whether atmospheric sputtering, along with the destruction of Mars' atmosphere, was also the primary driver behind the massive climate change that impacted Mars.